Zamgrh

SPOKEN BY

Zamgrh is spoken by zombies with the Death Rattle skill in the game Urban Dead.

DOCUMENTED BY

Urban Dead (www.urbandead.com) is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) that was developed by Kevan Davis (www.kevan.org).

BEHIND THE WORDS

Create a character (survivor or zombie victim), and play for free. The game is set in an urban environment in one of three cities: Monroeville, Malton, or Borehamwood. Players, who can enter the game either as zombies or survivors, must try to kill survivors (if the player is a zombie) or escape the zombie hordes (if the player is a survivor).

DERIVATION OF THE LANGUAGE

Zamgrh is a low-impact language constrained by the types of sounds a zombie might make.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE

Zamgrh usually follows a subject-verb-object syntax.

The Zamgrh alphabet is limited to eight letters (a, b, g, h, m, n, r, and z) and various punctuation marks. (What, you were hoping to stage Romeo and Juliet in Zamgrh? They’re zombies!)

A TASTE OF THE LANGUAGE

b!g (noun)—bird

baba (noun)—father

barb (noun)—knife

bragh (adjective)—black

brang (verb)—to take

ganarazharhbarn (noun)—factory

graan (adjective)—green

mama (noun)—mother

zan (noun)—sun

zhangh (verb)—to stab

A USEFUL PHRASE

Harm bang-bang man! (Kill all zombie hunters in the room!)

NUMBERING SYSTEM

Zombies use a base-five numbering system.

. — zero

! — one

? — two

= -— three

, — four

!. — five

!! — six

!? — seven

!= -— eight

!, — nine

PHILOLOGICAL FACT

Sometimes it’s just easier for a zombie to gesture or point to words on a sign.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Review the works listed above, the resources listed in the bibliography, and the web pages: “Urban Dead” (www.urbandead.com) and “Zamgrh” (http://wiki.urbandead.com/index.php/Zamgrh).